From childhood struggles to corporate success, Junie is thankful for it all
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
Imagine being a young child, anticipating your birthday the next day. The food, the presents, the excitement. With multiple siblings to share the attention with, it’s your one day a year to feel extra special.
Then, you wake up. Instead of a cake and meal of your choice, there is nothing.
No food and no money to buy any.
Heartbroken, you and your siblings go to bed that evening, stomachs rumbling.
That was the moment Junie Bartolome realised he wanted to work towards a different life.
“I started to tell myself that I don’t like this,” Junie says. “I don’t want this to happen every birthday.”
And it wasn’t just his own wellbeing that worried him. Junie was determined that his mother, a single parent, would have a better life.
Junie grew up in the Philippines as one of seven children who were still alive and living with their mother. One of the total of nine siblings had died in infancy, and another had been adopted. Junie’s father had abandoned his family when Junie was very young.
Joyville Children’s Home
Junie’s mother, short on options, learned of The Salvation Army’s Joyville Children’s Home through a social worker.
Joyville is a centre that typically caters to children abandoned on the streets or those who have been neglected or abused. It provides a holistic program that includes food, housing, and education for children between the ages of seven and 21.
A short time later, Junie and two of his siblings left their home and four younger siblings to live at Joyville. At the time, Junie’s mother felt there was no other way to give her children a chance at an education.
Junie, his brother and his sister all cried for two weeks.
“As a child, we didn’t understand what poverty was,” Junie says. “We just wanted to be with our mother.
"As I grew up, I came to understand how hard it was for my mother to put three of us there."
Junie began second grade at Joyville, sponsored by Garry and Linda Todd, soldiers at Waverley Corps in Victoria. The Todd family would go on to support Junie throughout his education journey.
This year, Junie visited Waverley Corps and thanked the Todd family in person.
“I [was] so happy to [be able to] personally thank them, hug them and for them to see that I’m like this now,” Junie says.
The Serojales family
There was another very important family Junie wanted to see in Australia.
Major Debbie Serojales, now serving at Sunraysia Corps in Victoria, served at Joyville when Junie arrived. She remained at the centre for six years. In that time, she met her husband, Rod, and they started their family.
“It wasn’t just an appointment,” Debbie says. “The kids became our kids.”
When Junie had only been at Joyville a short time, Debbie tells how she instructed the children to draw their goals for the future on large sheets of paper. She says the children’s goals for themselves were usually small, as they had come from such deeply ingrained poverty.
“Every single one of them had a house because they all wanted stability,” she says. “[They also] had their families painted in stick figures.
“And then Junie did his. He was seven or eight at the time, and he’s [drawn] himself as a computer engineer.”
Dreams come true
This childhood dream is now Junie’s reality. Now 27, Junie works in cybersecurity as a network security analyst. This career has helped him visit Debbie, Rod and the Todd family in Australia, has set him on track to fulfil the dream hidden inside the hungry young boy who wanted birthdays to be special, and perhaps most crucial of all – is helping support his family financially.
Junie’s siblings, who also attended Joyville, also work professional jobs; his brother is in IT, and his sister is a teacher. Together, they support their mother and fund their younger siblings’ education.
Junie gets emotional when talking about his mother.
“I don’t want her to leave this earth in that same situation,” he says. “I want her to just relax.”
“Everything he does is to be able to help his family and help his mother,” Debbie says.
Debbie says she and Rod are very proud of Junie and the person he has become. She says he saved for the trip to Australia and paid for it himself, fulfilling another of his goals.
“He’s doing really well,” she says. “He’s really quite successful in what he does and tries really hard.”
Junie's hopes for the future
While Junie is deeply grateful for the support he received at Joyville, he wants a different life for his younger siblings.
“[We’ve] been having conversations within my family and my siblings,” he says. “We don’t want our siblings to experience [being] separate from family just to have a good education.”
As Junie makes big decisions for his family and finances, he says he is so grateful for the ongoing support of Debbie and Rod, who he says are like an extra set of parents.
“I always pray that if God [makes] me really successful, [I will] help others because I experienced that, and it’s changed my life now.
“I’m really grateful for what I experienced, and I don’t want to change anything because I’ve learned a lot from it, and it [has] made me who I am today.”
Junie has a message for readers who are experiencing hardship.
“It means God is preparing [you] for something bigger,” he says. “All [you] need to do is trust God and don’t lose faith.”
Debbie smiles at Junie. Watching them interact is like watching a proud mother with her adult son who finds all the attention just a bit awkward.
“He’s such a preacher,” she says, nudging him.
They both can’t help but laugh.
